It’s currently on sale for $3, but well worth its normal asking price of $6
I have to admit, I had recently gotten leery of sticking my neck out to buy what looked to be decent, non-AAA games on the Switch from a developer I’d never heard of for a few bucks. When I saw Rekt! in the Switch eShop I was intrigued but still hesitant, especially when it was selling for a meager $3. A lot of questionable stuff makes it to the Sale page of the eShop, but I decided to give the game a buy and I’m so glad I did! Apparently the full title of the game is Rekt!: High Octane Stunts, but I’ll be referring to it as simply Rekt! from here out.
Rekt! plays like a cross between Rocket League, Mario Kart‘s battle mode, and Tony Hawk; In single-player mode your goal is either to do a bunch of stunts to earn a lot of points to unlock new vehicles. A bit of a vicious cycle in many games and one that wears out its welcome quickly. However the multi-player is where all these silly cars and physics shine, and is best enjoyed by 3 or more players, with kids under 13 probably the most likely to get a big kick out of the party mode shenanigans.
[I have to put in a brief mention of the title screen music: it’s the baseline of Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and will instantly earworm you if you’re old enough to know the song, so be forewarned.]
Let’s start with the control scheme: the game uses “stick” controls, a method I first experienced with another cute indie racer on the Switch, Chiki Chiki Boxy Racers. In stick control mode, when you want your car to move forward, you simply hold the analog stick up, and away you go, steering with up-right and up-left as needed. It does not take long to get used to in Rekt, particularly since you’ll always be using the right analog stick to try and pull off flips and spins while airborne off ramps and platforms to rack up those score points.
Single-Player
I have to admit, this game will quickly wear out its welcome in Single Player. After few rounds of trying our various tricks, and noticing you get extra points for pulling off certain specific moves in your run, I unlocked the skateboard, erm, ‘vehicle’, and had a much more enjoyable experience from then on.
The skateboard can speed up and flip around fairly quickly (natch), and adds some more lastability to the score attack mode. It is of course intriguing to think about what the next vehicle you’ll unlock will be, and there are dozens of them to unlock, but it’s not the most riveting game mechanic.
Mutliplayer Modes
The mutiplayer modes are naturally geared toward a more derby-style race experience, and where the game shines. In the grand tradition of racers, everyone shares a single screen and up to four people can enjoy the ‘party racing’ goodness. The modes are as follows:
- Baja – a checkpoint mode where you race to get to the checkpoints (obvs) strewn around the map.
- Virus – basically a game of tag, where one randomly-selected car is infected with a virus and has to smack into the other cars in order to spread it to them.
- Capture the Crown – a regular CTF mode where you want to pick up and hold onto the crown, which bobs on your vehicle at sometimes odd nd hilarious angles, longer than your opponents.
- Party mode is a combination of the three above modes all at the same time. I did not have the guts to try this one out just yet as the existing modes are enough on their own.
I tried it out with my step-kids and our favorite was clearly Capture the Crown. Especially on the larger, flatter maps, it was harder to get away from your pursuers for long stretches of time, and felt like the most ‘fair’ way to play the mode.
The amount of yelling and squealing as we raced to catch up to and smack into each other would have surely disturbed other members of the house, but no one else (thankfully) was home at the time. Still, this is the surest sign that the game is a good time.
I do think the other modes could use some tweaking, or there should be some extra maps meant for more traditional racing style. The dome shaped level certainly works well for Capture the Crown and Virus mode, and the ramp-heavy ones are certainly fun for working on tricks in Score Attack. That said it would be nice if there were some more traditional courses (and non-simple geometry for scenery) for courses meant for the Baja mode.
All in all, this game is extremely enjoyable and for $3 on sale, especially if you have a few kids to play with or enjoy beating up on your mates with some fun car models, Rekt! is sure to please. Get it on the eShop right now on your switch or on from the Nintendo website.